Majesty 2 Collection Review by Shaun Meyers (Kyo Akiara)

Shaun Meyers here again for my newest review taking a look at the world of Ardania in Majesty 2 Collection. Majesty 2 is an Indirect RTS kingdom building simulation game created by 1C Company and published by Paradox Interactive. The game itself is a joy to play and can be quite addicting at times, always making you feel like there’s more you must do before you stop playing. Most similar in structure to Civilization, its addictive but in a different way.

The games story starts off during a peaceful time in Ardania with the current King feeling like he won’t be recognized as a great and almighty King due to the peace he has brought about. He asks his magi to summon a demon for him to slay, but plans don’t always go in your favor and the King and all his heirs but you (the main character) must take up leadership of the kingdom and destroy the demon lord. The game features an indirect control of the heroes in your kingdom, which means that you must entice your heroes to fight for you by offering rewards using various flags to dictate what you would like them to do. These could include attacking a bear den to alleviate bears attacking your caravans, or to protect a building from invading enemies.

There are a number of different flags. Exploration flags have your heroes explore within the fog of war to reveal the map and enemy outposts and Attack flags dictate what you want your heroes to fight, be it individual enemies or buildings. Defence flags are used on buildings people or caravans that you want your heroes to protect from enemy attacks.

The buildings you can build within the game offer various upgrades that your heroes can purchase as well. The Guilds build menu is the first stop to recruit new heroes. These buildings allow you to recruit various heroes each with various personalities, likes and dislikes. The Warriors guild is for recruiting heroes that love to fight. As you upgrade the building you unlock new abilities for your warriors, the first being Call to Arms which allows the warriors guild to train Apprentices to defend your kingdom. The second skill is a sweeping power attack that does great amounts of damage.

The second guild is the Rogues guild, which as the name implies trains dual wielding thieves. This guilds upgrades include the use and selling of poisons and an extortion skill that allows you to hire the thieves guild to instantly collect all the taxes in your kingdom for a fee of course.

The third guild is the Ranger’s guild. These heroes enjoy exploring and hunting most of all, their skills include eagle eye which greatly improves line of sight, and a charged power attack that does great damage.

The fourth guild is the Clerics guild. These are your healers and their skills include the ability to heal your heroes and a magical power attack that does heavy damage.

The fifth guild is the Wizards guild. These are your mages. This guild allows you to recruit mages, research new abilities for your mage heroes and research weapon and armor enchantments and various spells.

The sixth guild is the Elven Bungalow, which allows you to train elven heroes.

The final Guild is the Dwarven Settlement. These allows you to recruit dwarven heroes, but you can only choose either elves or dwarves since they don’t like each other.

After recruiting a few heroes you must now build your economy and bring in money to your kingdom. There are various economical buildings that offer upgrades to your heroes as well. The first building is the Marketplace, which brings in a substantial amount of gold to your kingdom and allows you to research and sell various potions and artifacts. The second economical building is the Blacksmith, which brings in a modest income but allows you to research new weapons and armor for your heroes. The third building is the Inn, which acts as a meeting place for parties of heroes and a place of rest and healing. The fourth economical building is the Trading Post, which allows your caravans to bring in various goods and money to your kingdom and these are also spread throughout various places on the map for you to build during the campaign. The 5th building you can build is a statue of the King, which increases your heroes enthusiasm to do your bidding. The final economical building is the Magic Bazaar. This building brings in an income as well as allows you to research new potions and elixirs to sell to your heroes.

There are also three types of Fortifications you can build to protect your kingdom. The Guardhouse is your first Fortification. The guardhouse fires arrows at approaching enemies as well as garrisons a defensive unit and is used as a storehouse for tax collectors. The second fortification is the Wizards Tower. This structure defends against approaching enemies and builds itself with magic. The final fortification is the Dwarven Tower and this one is a standard fortification that just fires arrows at incoming enemies.

The final group of structures you can buy are Temples. Temples allow you to recruit special units such as priestesses or paladins as well as unlocking powerful spells such as Ravage and Plague. The temples you can build are the Temple of Krypta, which allows you to recruit priestesses, and unlocks the Ravage and Plague spells, The Temple of Agrela that allows you to recruit priestesses of that temple and research the Resurrection spell and The Temple of Daurus that allows you to recruit paladins and research the Holy Shield spell.

The Temple of Krolm allows you to recruit Blademasters and research the Wrath of Krolm spell. The Temple of Fervus allows you to summon Beastmasters and research the Shield of Chaos spell. The Temple of Helia allows you to summon the Archers of Helia and research the Sun Stroke spell. The Temple of Ice allows you to hire Ice Mages and the final temple is the Temple of Lunord which allows you to hire Assassins.

Apart from the Campaign there are various Skirmish type maps with a specific quest to complete, and the second is Multiplayer. Multiplayer games can be up to 4v4 with a number of game modes such as Sole Survivor, Battle for the Waterfall, Under Siege and many more.

The features listed above are only from the Original game. The Majesty 2 collection also comes with every DLC and Expansion Pack released. The Expansion packs are, The Kingmaker, Battles of Ardania and Monster Kingdom. The Kingmaker Expansion pack includes the Kingmaker editor which enables players to create missions of their own, new monsters and the Return to Grum-Gog campaign. The Battles of Ardania Expansion pack includes the Heirs of the Night campaign, several new monsters, four new multiplayer maps including co-op missions, new weapons, and more than ten different classes of heroes.

Overall I greatly enjoy the game, it’s very enjoyable and addicting. With the many features and enemies this game and collection has it’s a great buy at the cheap price of $19.99 on steam. I highly recommend the game to anyone that enjoys RTS games or games with RPG elements and lots of features and quests to complete. Thanks for reading and I hope this has shown much insight on the game.